


No (wo)man is an island

by irisdouglasiana



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: F/M, I happen to be a decent shot with a harpoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 23:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12143376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irisdouglasiana/pseuds/irisdouglasiana
Summary: Jack Thompson had not actually been invited on Peggy and Daniel's honeymoon, but that was apparently no obstacle.





	No (wo)man is an island

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lillianmmalter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillianmmalter/gifts).



> Inspired by lillianmmalter, who suggested "a crack fic with Jack butting in on the major moments of Peggy and Daniel's lives together and just taking over." 
> 
> Special thanks to Paeonia for brainstorming help when I was getting bogged down in the details!

Jack Thompson had not been invited on their honeymoon, but that was apparently no obstacle, as Peggy discovered on the fourth morning of her leisurely trip with Daniel to see the redwoods up north. The knock on the door had come a little after eight in the morning, and at first she hoped it was just Howard’s housekeeper and they could ignore it and go back to bed, but then the knocking continued and she heard Jack shouting, “Get up, Sousas! Rise and shine!”

Daniel groaned beside her. “Seriously?” He caught her wrist as she reluctantly pulled on her robe. “Maybe he’ll go away if we pretend we’re not here.”

It was a tempting idea, but Peggy doubted they would be able to get away with it for long. “I’ll go see what he wants,” she sighed. “You should get dressed, my love. We ought to be getting on the road soon anyway.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a smile. “But we’re not taking Thompson with us.”

“Agreed.” She left him in the bedroom to get ready and trudged down the hallway to the main foyer, stifling a yawn. As a wedding gift, Howard had given them access to his vacation home off the Pacific Coast Highway a few miles south of Big Sur, and it was so pleasant that Peggy had been tempted to suggest to Daniel that they stay a day or two longer. But not with Jack Thompson banging down the door.

“I hope there’s a compelling reason for this, Jack,” Peggy snapped as she let him in. “For your own sake.”

“Come on, Marge, you know you missed me. How’s married life treating you?”

“Very well, thank you very much,” she said, but she wasn’t exactly in the mood to indulge him in the details. She put her hands on her hips. “And now I would like you to tell me what was so important that you had to interrupt our honeymoon.”

“I’d like to know too,” Daniel chimed in, emerging from the bedroom. He put his arm around Peggy’s waist. “Morning, Jack.”

“Aw, Mr. and Mrs. Sousa,” Jack grinned. Then he pulled a photograph out of his pocket and handed it to Peggy. It was an aerial view of an island. “Got a report of a flash of red light off the coast last evening, followed by a clap of thunder. You didn’t hear it?”

Peggy glanced at Daniel and shook her head. They’d gone out dancing the night before and hadn’t returned to Howard’s place until almost midnight.

“Busy doing other things, huh?” Jack said slyly, and Peggy rolled her eyes. “I called up the fellow at the Point Pinos lighthouse and spoke to some other witnesses who saw it. Based on the available evidence, we think it came from this island fifty miles southwest of Big Sur. So I figured I’d drive up here and check it out.”

Daniel took the photograph from Peggy. “That must’ve been quite the explosion if they saw it all the way up by Monterey. Any idea what we’d be walking into?”

“The island is about a mile square, supposedly uninhabited. Pretty rugged; no trees. As for who was behind the explosion? Maybe the Soviets or the Chinese, if it’s foreign, but the proximity to the coast makes me think it’s not—could be some former Isodyne wackos testing out something illegal. That island is outside of the usual flight paths, and there’d normally be a lot of cloud cover. It’s a decent hideout.”

Peggy frowned. “An airplane or helicopter landing would be very difficult due to the terrain, though I suppose one could parachute in. Our best approach would be from the sea.”

“Either way, the longer we wait, the more evidence we lose. They’d want to get everything out quick. More likely than not, they’re long gone already,” Daniel mused. “Problem is, Peg and I didn’t really come prepared for this. Being on our honeymoon and all.”

Jack shrugged. “I’ve got some supplies and firearms in the car and I talked Jarvis into lending me—lending us Stark’s boat. We’ll just go and scout it out, and that’s it. Out there and back in one day, and then you lovebirds can drive on to San Francisco or wherever the hell you’re going. Nice and easy. So, are you in or not?”

Peggy looked at Daniel, and he nodded. The redwoods would have to wait.

* * *

The fog was hanging low over the island and a light mist was still coming down as Jack maneuvered Howard’s boat around the rocky outcrops and steered them toward the shore. Peggy drew her jacket tighter around her and shivered. Daniel gripped her elbow—as much for his own balance as to reassure her—and smiled, and for a moment she felt giddy all over again. It was still sinking in that only five days ago they had really done it, said the words, exchanged the rings, kissed, and now they were off on their honeymoon. (Well, with Jack in tow, but that was beside the point.) She had told herself she wasn’t going to be silly and sentimental about getting married, but it turned out on some level she really was…and that was all right. Daniel certainly didn’t mind—if anything, he was worse than her.

Jack was talking and she wasn’t quite listening, not until he came over and snapped his fingers in her face. “Earth to Marge, I’m gonna need your help beaching the boat, once we find a good spot.”

She batted his hand away. “Fine,” she said, irritated at him all over again.

“Don’t think you’ll have to beach it after all,” Daniel spoke up as they rounded the southern tip of the island. “That looks like a dock.”

It was indeed a dock, partially hidden beneath an overhanging cliff. “This construction can’t be more than a few years old,” Peggy noted while she tied up the boat. “I doubt we’re far from the site of the explosion.”  

Daniel handed her a couple bags of equipment and his crutch and then clambered down from the boat onto the dock. The waves had been choppy and he still looked a little queasy from the boat ride. Peggy had been grateful for Jack’s navigational skills, as she had never learned how to sail or steer a boat as a girl—her mother deemed it insufficiently ladylike—and Daniel had no experience either, city boy that he was. (“I’ve taken the ferry to Staten Island; does that count?” he asked, and Jack had snorted.)

They commenced their search by following a steep narrow path up the cliff and working their way north. As Jack had warned them, the rough terrain made for slow progress, and the cold wind and constant drizzle didn’t improve matters. It wasn’t long before Daniel’s earlier suggestion back at the house that they just ignore Jack began to sound more and more like the right decision. Peggy thought wistfully back to the enormous bed with the down pillows and comforter, the backyard heated pool, the substantial liquor cabinet, all of it for just the two of them…

“Jack, you interrupted our honeymoon for this; we’d better find something good to show for it…” Daniel huffed, catching himself from slipping as they scrambled over a hill. “…Oh. Um. That’ll do it.”

The crater stretched nearly fifty feet across, and the earth was scorched and still smoking. They carefully worked their way to the center, stepping over chunks of concrete, broken glass, and debris.

“They blew up their own operation. Whoever they are,” Daniel said, nudging a twisted piece of metal with his crutch.

“Must’ve been an accident. No way would you do something like this on purpose,” Jack speculated. He picked up a chunk of concrete and stared at it thoughtfully before chucking it away. “Although…for the amount of debris, some part of it should’ve been visible from that aerial photo.”

Peggy’s eyes strayed to a depression on the southeast side of the crater. “You’re wondering where the rest of it is?” A portion of what had once been a concrete wall covered up part of a smooth surface that almost looked like… “Help me move this,” she ordered, and between the three of them they shoved it aside, revealing a staircase leading down into darkness.

“Well, there you have it. Good work, Marge,” Jack said. He switched on his flashlight and drew his gun. “Let’s go.”

Peggy saw Daniel eyeing the narrow, debris-covered steps, but with Jack standing there she didn’t want to say anything. He caught her watching and smiled slightly. “Guess I should’ve brought my hiking crutch, huh? I’ll be right behind you,” he said, and she nodded and followed Jack.

The stairs went down further than she thought, and the outside light soon dwindled. Jack and Peggy paused on the first landing to wait for Daniel to catch up, and as Peggy swept her flashlight around the stairwell she could see no trace of cobwebs in the corners or dust on the floor. “I’ll keep going down,” Jack said. “The two of you can search this level. This place gives me the heebie-jeebies. The sooner we get this over with, the better.”

“Very well,” she said, and watched him disappear down the steps. Behind her, Daniel reached the landing and followed her into the darkened first room.

“Looks like they cleared out quick,” Daniel observed, broken glass crunching under his feet as he circled around. Apart from a long built-in counter along the wall, it was totally devoid of equipment or furniture. “They must’ve known this place would have been discovered after the explosion.”

Peggy shone her flashlight up towards the ceiling. “There’s a fume vent here,” she noted. “Quite a well-built laboratory.”

“Hey, look at this,” Daniel said. He picked up a chunk of a broken jar that still had part of a label attached. “That’s a Roxxon logo.”

“It’s not definitive proof, but it’s certainly useful evidence.” Peggy took the label from him and tucked it in her bag. “If we find any intact jars, we ought to take them back with us so the lab can identify the contents, and then it may be time to have a little chat with Hugh Jones.”

“Nitramene, zero matter…you’d think at some point these guys would figure out how to not blow up their own labs.”

“Indeed.” Peggy shone her flashlight along the length of the counter and her attention was suddenly drawn to a piece of paper on the far end. She walked over to get a closer look. Someone had written “Best wishes to the happy couple!” in familiar loopy cursive script, with hearts drawn around the border. Peggy snapped into high alert and raised her gun. “I think we are not alone,” she said to Daniel. He followed her gaze to the paper and his eyes widened.

“Underwood?” he asked quietly, and she nodded.

“Jack,” Peggy said into the radio, “we’ve got company. Be careful.”

There was no reply for several seconds. Then they heard a burst of static, followed by Jack panting over the radio, “Yeah, I know, I found her. Shit!”

“Jack? Where are you?” Peggy demanded, and when there was no reply, she looked at Daniel in dismay. “Let’s move.”

“—down—on the—fourth level,” Jack huffed. “Some sort of maintenance—argh!”

“We’re coming,” she assured him, running down the stairs with Daniel some ways behind her. She heard a loud crash off to her right and the unmistakable sound of Jack getting punched and then thrown against a wall. As Peggy burst into the room, Dottie pulled Jack into a headlock and jerked him upright, pressing a knife to his throat.

Peggy steadied her grip on the gun and pointed it at her opponent’s head. “Dottie Underwood, drop the knife! You are under arrest.”

Dottie grinned and kept her hold on Jack as she worked her way along the wall towards the stairwell. “Oh Peg, I’ve missed you; it’s been far too long. I hear congratulations are in order. Where’s the lucky Mr. Carter? I suppose my invitation got lost in the mail.”

“It didn’t, I assure you. You will release Chief Thompson immediately and explain the cause of last night’s explosion and your connection to Roxxon,” Peggy ordered.

Dottie pressed the knife in ever so slightly and Jack went very still. A trickle of blood ran down his neck and on to his shirt. “You know, I don’t think I will.” She shrugged. “Sorry.”

Then she laughed and shoved Jack towards Peggy, sending both of them sprawling. She turned and reached the stairs at the same time as Daniel made it to the bottom, but before he could react she flung some sort of powder into his eyes and pushed him out of the way. He gasped and immediately doubled over, clawing at his face.

Dottie’s voice echoed down the stairwell. “That’s a nice boat you’ve got up there, Peg. It’d be shame to lose it!”

“Go!” Jack told Peggy, shoving her off of him. He grabbed his canteen and poured the water into Daniel’s eyes, but his face was already beginning to swell. “I’ll make sure he’s all right.”

Daniel was curled up in a ball on the ground, moaning in pain. Peggy looked from her husband to Jack and back again, swallowed hard, and nodded. She raced up the stairs to the surface and then scrambled back along the cliff, but the ground was slick and she ended up sliding down nearly the rest of the way on her behind. By the time she made it to the dock, Dottie had already cut the rope, revved up the engine, and started to pull the boat away from the shore.

Peggy took a running leap off the dock and just barely managed to grab the side of the boat before Dottie accelerated and swerved, almost shaking her loose. She gritted her teeth and hauled herself over the side. Dottie was on her the moment she was up, yanking her backwards by her hair and sweeping her feet out from under her. She managed to get a grip on Dottie’s ankle and pulled her down.

“What was that powder? What did you do to Daniel?” she hissed, narrowly avoiding a swipe from Dottie’s knife. She sat up and reached for her gun but Dottie was too quick and slapped it out of her hand. It went skittering across the deck and Peggy lunged for it.

Dottie grabbed Peggy’s arm so roughly she nearly dislocated her shoulder, and landed a blow to her head that sent her reeling. “Consider it a wedding present. Really, I’m hurt I didn’t get an invite. I thought we were friends.” Then she shoved her overboard.

The water was ice cold and she gasped as she made contact, flailing for a moment until she recovered her bearings. Peggy treaded water and watched in dismay as the boat sped off into the distance, with Dottie blowing kisses behind her. She bobbed up and down in the wake and then started swimming back towards the beach. It was further away than she thought, and her arms ached terribly by the time she finally reached the island and hauled herself out of the water. Then the breeze picked up and she shuddered. Her soaked clothes clung to her body, her toes were already numb, and salt water dripped from her hair down her back. She turned to look back at the ocean and she couldn’t even see the boat anymore—or any boat, for that matter. Her heart sank.

She heard Jack calling for her in the distance, and she ran up the beach in the direction of his voice, glad that she had chosen to wear boots instead of heels for this venture. It wasn’t long before she found them. Daniel’s right arm was slung over Jack’s shoulder, and Peggy gasped when she drew near enough to get a good look at his face. His eyes were almost swollen shut, with rashes forming underneath. “Daniel!”

“That bad, huh?” He forced a smile and turned his head in her direction, and she suddenly was unsure if he could see her at all.

“What happened? Where’s Underwood?” Jack asked. “Where’s the…oh god, where’s the _boat_?”

Peggy shook her head in frustration. “She stole it.”

Jack swore, shrugged off Daniel’s arm, and stalked off down the beach. Peggy reached out and took her husband’s elbow, and he frowned. “You’re soaked.”

“I fell in the water. I’m fine.” She was far more worried about him. “Your eyes…?”

“Not good,” he admitted quietly. “Whatever she used, my eyes were really burning at the beginning. Jack helped me flush them out, but…”

“The swelling will go down soon,” she tried to reassure him as she led him down the beach after Jack, who was still pacing around and swearing up a blue streak. He paused to kick a large rock a few times.

“Feel better?”

He glared at her, but stopped kicking the rock. “We’re sort of screwed here, Marge. In case you hadn’t noticed.”

“What about the Coast Guard?” Daniel asked. “They know where we are, right?”

Jack shook his head. “They’re not coming. There’s a major search and rescue operation going on off of Carmel and they’re all tied up. And it’s not like we have a way to call them, anyhow.”

“And the SSR? Didn’t you give Rose the coordinates?”

“Yeah, but there was a big break in the Medina case just after you left. They’re busy.”  

“So that leaves…who? Jarvis?” Daniel released his grip on Peggy’s arm and threw up his hand in exasperation. “Out there and back in one day, you said. Nice and easy. Your exact words.”

“Shut up, Sousa.”

This seemed like an unproductive line of conversation. “So it may be a few days before anyone comes looking for us, unless we get spotted by another ship or plane or find another way off the island,” Peggy said. “What resources do we have until then?”

Daniel sighed. “All the food and water was on the boat, except for whatever’s left in the canteens…so, whatever’s left in your canteen, since we already emptied out Jack’s and mine. Communications equipment, emergency supplies, and medical supplies were on the boat too. We’ve got flashlights, radios, one pair of binoculars, compasses, maps, guns, and that’s it. I doubt there’s even enough dry wood on this island to make a fire. Not that we have tinder or matches.”

 “I lost my gun on the boat,” Peggy admitted.

“Great, so we have two,” Jack cut in.

“But we do have anything Dottie and her companions left behind in the facility. Even though they removed most of their equipment, they may not have had time to take everything. Perhaps there are still supplies that might be useful to us,” she pointed out. “If they left behind certain chemicals or flammable materials, we might be able to create a distress signal.”

“Yes, wonderful idea, Marge. Let’s take some of the unknown chemicals that destroyed half a building and set the whole goddamn island on fire. Jesus.” Jack groaned loudly and kicked the rock again.

“If you have any brilliant suggestions, Jack, by all means, please share.”

He ran his hand through his hair and squinted up at the sky. The rain had stopped for the moment, but the clouds still hugged the island. “Knew a guy during the war who ended up stranded somewhere off of Bora Bora for a full week. He said you can make it for a while without food, but you really need water and shelter. We can use what’s left of the facility for shelter. Water’s the main problem, though.”

“We can collect rainwater if it starts raining again,” Daniel said. “What did that guy do?”

Jack shrugged. “Drank his own piss.”

“Oh.” There was an extended silence.

“Perhaps we ought to reconsider that distress signal,” Peggy said brightly. She linked arms with Daniel to lead him back to the laboratory. “Shall we?”

* * *

The second examination of the facility proved slow going, with Peggy acting as Daniel’s guide. The only good news was that the swelling seemed to be gradually going down and he was now able to make out shadows and the outlines of shapes. “Sorry,” he muttered as he stumbled over a chunk of concrete for the third time. They paused for a moment so he could regain his balance.

She could tell how frustrated he was. “I suppose I’ll accept your apology,” Peggy teased, hoping to lift his mood, and was rewarded with a brief smile.

“They didn’t even leave behind the doors,” Jack complained as they picked their way through a storage room on the third level. “Or the hinges on the doors, even. Stripped out the electric. No pipes. No water. Nothing.”

“Something I don’t get,” Daniel remarked. “We circled the entire island and we didn’t see another landing or another boat. So how did Dottie Underwood get here in the first place, and how was she planning to leave?”

Peggy had no answer to that. Her stomach was beginning to growl and her head ached where Dottie had punched her, and after a couple hours there was still little to show for their efforts. They soon found they couldn’t even proceed below the fourth level; when they took the stairs down to the fifth and apparently final level they discovered it was flooded and impassable. Worse, the concrete was cracked above the waterline and in some places the walls themselves seemed warped. “The explosion must have damaged the foundation,” she said, ducking down to shine her flashlight around the flooded room. “We may not want to shelter down here tonight.”    

With little to show for their efforts, they made their way back up to the surface just as the sun was starting to go down. They were all hungry and tired by the time they settled in for the evening in a small cove down by the dock. Even though they were mostly out of the wind, Peggy’s teeth were beginning to chatter uncontrollably, and she knew it was only going to get worse as the night went on.

“Turn around, Jack. Daniel, give me your jacket,” she ordered, and began taking off her soaked boots and socks. Then she stripped out of her wet pants and blouse, opting to leave on her undergarments despite the discomfort.

“Aw, jeez, Marge—” Jack groaned, wheeling around to face the other way.

Daniel squinted at her and blinked. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” she snapped. “You men are ridiculous. I’m not about to expire on this bloody godforsaken spit of land from hypothermia. Jack, don’t tell me you’ve never seen a woman’s legs before, and Daniel, I hope you recall we are actually _married_ now.”

“Yes, dear,” Daniel said, though he still looked somewhat mortified. He shrugged off his jacket and handed it to her to wrap around herself.

In the meantime, Jack, still staring in the other direction, whistled “God Save the Queen.” Then he sat down and took off his shoes and trousers. “Don’t be shy, Peggy,” he grinned. He put his shoes back on and tossed her his dry pants. “I know you’ve seen a man’s legs before,” and then, apparently unable to resist, “—well, leg. Whatever.”

“Tell me, did they make you chief for your powers of observation, or was it just nepotism?” Peggy asked sweetly, though she put on his trousers anyway and rolled up the pant legs. It was hardly fair, but then again, thanks to Jack, their honeymoon had been derailed, Daniel had nearly been blinded, and Dottie had made off with their boat and left them stranded without food and water, so she was very much not in the mood for his commentary.

“Jesus, it was a joke,” Jack grumbled. “Women overreact to _everything_. Why can’t you ever take a damn—”

“For the record, _I’m_ keeping my pants on,” Daniel announced and cut them both off. They all silently agreed to leave it at that.

* * *

It wasn’t long before the boys dozed off and Peggy took the first watch. She spent those quiet, uneventful hours watching the full moon rise behind the cloud cover. Just before midnight, the wind pushed the clouds away and the skies opened up. The light was surprisingly bright, casting pale shadows across the barren landscape. All she could hear was the whistling of the breeze and the waves lapping up against the shore. She sipped sparingly from her canteen and let the time pass by, as she had for so many nights during the war.

Once her shift was over, she tapped Daniel on the shoulder to wake him, even though she wasn’t tired. He yawned and sat up with a wince. “How are your eyes?” she asked, keeping her voice down so as not to wake Jack.

“Still attached,” he answered wryly. “They’re itchy and everything is sort of blurry but it’s definitely getting better. I think I’ll be fine by tomorrow. I’d still like to know what Underwood hit me with, though.”

“Believe me, I have plenty of questions for her as well.” Peggy curled her hands into fists and then forced herself to relax. “You’re sure you’re all right?”

She could barely hear him when he spoke. “Peg, I sort of…panicked, down there,” he said, looking away. “After Underwood threw the stuff in my eyes and you went after her and it was just me and Jack, I thought for a few minutes that I might be blind for good.” He laughed softly. “You know, after I got hit, I spent a lot of time stewing over how it wasn’t fair that it happened to me, and, well, the thought of losing my sight _now_ on top of that…”

He fell silent. Peggy pulled her legs up to her chest, picking at the seam of Jack’s pants. “I shouldn’t have left you.”

Daniel shook his head. “No, no. You had to do it. Jack made me snap out of it; I really am all right.”

“Even so…”

“Don’t beat yourself up over this, Peg. Okay?”

“Fine,” she said doubtfully. They sat there in silence, listening to Jack snore in the corner.

“Hey,” Daniel said after a few minutes. “You remember what you said to me a long time ago? Something about being more than capable of handling whatever those adolescents could throw at you?”

“I remember.”

“So I can handle Jack Thompson’s bad jokes.”

“I know,” she sighed. “But I don’t have to like it.”

“Of course not. And, you know, he’s not wrong; I do have one leg. Hope that’s not a deal breaker.”

Even though she knew he couldn’t see it in the dark, she rolled her eyes anyway. “Bugger off.”

Daniel laughed and gazed at her fondly. “Hey, c’mere.”

With a sigh, she scooted over and rested her head in his lap. He stroked her hair, frowning in concentration as he gently worked through the tangles.

“You look thoughtful, my love,” she murmured after a few minutes had passed.

He smiled and looked away, and for a moment, it brought her back to those first months in New York—when had she first seen him with a genuine smile on his face? “Just didn’t think I’d be spending my honeymoon stranded on an island with Jack Thompson.”

She bit her lip. “Neither did I. I’m sorry, Daniel.”

“For what? I got myself wrapped up in this too.” He took her hand, running his thumb along her palm. “I feel lucky as hell. I get to be married to you. After the war, for a while I didn’t think I would ever marry, you know?”

“I didn’t think I would, either,” she said. A lump formed in her throat. “But I’m glad I did. I’m glad I met you.”

He squeezed her hand. “Me too.”

She fell asleep some time after that, curled up beside him, all worries and cares momentarily forgotten.

* * *

Peggy was ravenous and terribly thirsty when she woke up, and it took her a moment to remember where she was—lying on the beach on a deserted island. Daniel was still asleep at her side, but Jack was already gone. She wiggled out of Jack’s pants, proceeded to get dressed in her still-damp clothes, and went looking for him.  

The clouds had come back in overnight, but the wind had died down and the rain had at least ceased for the moment, and it would have been a rather pleasant little island if they weren’t stranded there. She hiked up to the nearest hill and found Jack at the top, sitting on the ground and looking east towards the mainland, still shrouded in clouds.

“I thought you might want your trousers back,” she said as she handed over his pants and took a seat beside him.

“Beats getting rescued in my underwear.” He squinted off into the distance and rubbed the large bruise forming on his jaw where Dottie had punched him. “Well, now’s your chance to sock me if you want to, Marge.”

Peggy looked at him sharply. “For what?”

“For ruining your honeymoon and stranding you on an island. And we didn’t even catch Underwood.”

“We will,” she said confidently. Then she let out a sigh. “I’m not angry with you, Jack. Not for that.”

“Oh, for other stuff, then?” he guessed. “You’re mad because I made that crack about Sousa’s leg?”

“He’s my husband. I can be offended on his behalf.”

“You know I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Then you can tell him that.”

Jack scratched his chin thoughtfully, and then he met her eyes at last. “Yeah. Yeah. Okay.”

“And…thank you for what you did for him yesterday,” she added quietly.

He chuckled and looked down. “Aw, Marge. Don’t get all soft on me.” He stood up and put his pants back on. “Well, what do you say? You ready to get off this island?”

“Absolutely.” She thought back to the Jack Thompson she had known in New York, to the arrogant, smirking bully who pushed around anyone he perceived as weaker than him. She thought of him frozen on the floor of the compound in Belarus, staring at her in terror. She thought of him shaking the senator’s hand, glancing over at her and then away and saying he just did what needed to be done. She thought of him in the hospital after the shooting, trying to crack jokes while he struggled to breathe. And she thought of him, finally, at the wedding only a few days ago, standing at their side as Daniel slid the ring on her finger. Later, drunk and giddy, Jack had become choked up and pulled them both into a hug.

It was strange how people could change like that. Strange, how they could carry multitudes within them, both good and bad. Strange, how they could choose who they wanted to become. Strange and wonderful all at once.

* * *

They were all a little worse for wear in the morning. Both Daniel and Jack were sunburnt and looked exhausted, though Peggy was relieved to see that the Daniel’s vision seemed to be back to normal and the swelling had gone down overnight. She had a feeling that she didn’t look much better; the salt water had left her hair stiff and tangled and her lips were so chapped it hurt.

They regrouped on the beach to consider their options. There weren’t many. “I think our best bet is just to wait it out,” Jack argued. “There’s got to be fishermen or cargo ships out there somewhere. Someone will pick us up.”

“Out there somewhere?” Daniel repeated. “It’s been over twenty-four hours and we haven’t seen or heard any boats, and we don’t have anything to create a signal anyway.”

“You wanna start swimming, Sousa?” Jack took a few steps along the beach and sat down. “Go ahead. I’ll wait here for you to pick me up.”

Peggy put her hands on her hips. “It’s been over twenty-four hours. We have no food, we are completely out of water, Daniel had god-knows-what thrown in his eyes, and I imagine it’s only a matter of time before Dottie returns with a boatful of Roxxon goons to finish us off. So I, for one, think it is imperative we leave while the weather is favorable. Unless you’d prefer to stay here and drink your own urine, Jack.”

Daniel choked down a laugh and Jack turned red. “Fine. You’re in charge. How are we getting out of here?”

“We can…we can build a raft.”

“That’s nice. What are we building it out of? Concrete?”

“We’ll take apart the dock.”

Jack crossed his arms. “Uh huh. And even if we had the tools to do that, we’re fifty miles from the mainland. It’s a long way to swim if we run into trouble out there.”

Daniel shifted his weight from side to side. “Yeah, I dunno about that idea, Peg…”

Peggy stared out across the water and dredged up the sand with her toes. The tide had fully receded, revealing barnacle-covered rocks and mounds of kelp. Then it struck her. “Yesterday, we were unable to search below the fourth level of the facility because the tide had flooded the lower floors.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, and?”

“How did the water get in?”

Daniel looked thoughtful. “There must be a breach somewhere. You think there’s some sort of connection to the outside? I could see how it would make sense for them to have a second entrance, especially if they had a lot of equipment to haul around.”

“You asked how Dottie had arrived at the island in the first place and how she intended to leave. Maybe that’s our answer. We have to go back to the laboratory and search again.”

“I sure hope you’re right about this, Marge,” Jack said, but he got up and brushed off the sand anyway, and they hiked back up the hill to the facility once more, moving somewhat slower than they had the previous day.

As Peggy had suspected, this time they could make it down to the fifth level with the tide fully out. The water came up to her ankles, once again soaking through her boots. This room had been emptied of equipment like the others, but the concrete wall on the far end of the room had cracked and light was streaming in from the outside. Seawater seeped through a sizable hole in a corner, rushing in and then retreating with the waves. Peggy ran her fingers down a long, suspiciously vertical fissure in the east wall.

“Hidden door?” Daniel asked, and then to himself: “Where’s the switch?” The three of them sloshed around the room, tapping at the walls and the floor until Daniel found a slight depression along the bottom edge of the west wall. When he nudged it with his crutch, the fissure in the south wall suddenly split open with a loud grinding noise. The ground beneath them trembled and for a moment Peggy was certain the whole building was about to come crashing down on them, but then it stopped—and there was a small sailboat, bobbing up and down in the water, sitting in the middle of a tunnel that led directly to the sea.

Jack let out a whoop. “Marge, you’re a genius!”

“’Course she is,” Daniel said with pride.   

Peggy stepped onto the boat, bent down, and drew out a small brown canvas bag from under the seat. Inside were a packet of papers and three test tubes, each containing a glowing reddish substance. “Oh my. It seems Dottie left something behind.”

Daniel took the papers from her and whistled. “It’s a chemical formula,” he said, flipping through the pages. “Looks similar to Stark’s nitramene, but Samberly can run some tests when we get back. I wouldn’t drop those test tubes if I were you, Peg.”

“Duly noted,” she said dryly. She carefully put them back in the bag. “Well, Jack? Does it pass inspection?”

Jack was already putting the sail into position and testing out the ropes. He looked over and grinned. “Get in, lovebirds. We’re out of here.”

* * *

From the way the sailboat sat very low in the water, it was clear it wasn’t meant to accommodate three people, but they managed to squeeze in anyway. They set off for the mainland with Peggy and Daniel trading off with the paddle and Jack steering and giving directions. Despite the help of a slight breeze, it hardly felt as though they were making any progress. Peggy’s arms soon grew sore and she began to sweat as the sun beat down overhead. Her throat was so dry she could barely swallow. Daniel and Jack bickered for a little while but then they too fell silent, each in their own bubble of misery. The island faded into the distance and yet the mainland never seemed to get any closer. Peggy started thinking about the possibility that they had escaped the island only to perish in the middle of the ocean, and decided it was better to not share that particular thought.

And then she saw it. At first she thought it was a mirage: a tiny white sail, far off in the distance. She blinked a few times, but it didn’t disappear—in fact, it seemed to be growing larger by the minute. She set down the paddle, adjusted the focus on her binoculars, and her eyes widened. She had never been so happy to see Jarvis, stripped to his waist, waving at them merrily from the deck of a sailboat. Behind it came the boat they had taken out to the island the day before: Ana stood at the stern by the motor, looking rather fetching in her sailor’s outfit, and Dottie Underwood was trussed up and gagged in the front.

She thrust the binoculars at Daniel. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he said after he looked, and passed them along to Jack.

“Son of a…” he said, shaking his head. He altered course and it wasn’t long before the two boats pulled up on either side of them.

“Mr. Jarvis!” Peggy called out. She stood up carefully so as not to capsize the boat. “This is a surprise.”

“Miss Car—er, I apologize, Mrs. Sousa—I am extremely relieved that you are all right,” he said, reaching out his hand to help her on board. “And Chief Sousa and Chief Thompson, as well.” They hauled Daniel up next after some awkward maneuvering, and Jack joined Ana on the other boat, flopping down on the floor with relief next to a disgruntled (yet mercifully silent) Dottie.

Jarvis handed Peggy a canteen and she happily gulped down the water. “Ana insisted we bring whiskey as well, should you want it.”

“Um, perhaps later. How on earth did you find us?”

“All of Mr. Stark’s automobiles, planes, and boats are equipped with tracking devices, naturally,” Jarvis explained. “When there was no word from you or Chiefs Sousa and Thompson and the coordinates indicated an unusual deviation from the intended route, I grew concerned and informed Agent Roberts that Ana and I would lead a search mission. I apologize we could not arrive any sooner.”

“We’re very grateful. And Dottie Underwood…?”

“Ah, yes. We were able to track the boat to the vicinity of Point Reyes, and we quickly realized that Dottie Underwood had commandeered it. Fortunately, I happen to be a decent shot with a harpoon, and I managed to temporarily disable the rudder. And Ana—” he beamed with pride, “well, she’s been training for the past several months in the art of kung fu, and between the two of us, we were able to subdue Miss Underwood with only moderate difficulty.”

“Edwin exaggerates my skills,” Ana protested. “It was somewhat more than moderately difficult. Miss Underwood is a very worthy opponent. Oh, and Mrs. Sousa, my husband has something of yours.”

“Quite right.” Jarvis handed over Peggy’s Walther PPK.

She holstered her gun with a sigh of relief. “Excellent work, both of you, but you really ought to wait for backup next time.”

“Just like you always do, Marge?” Jack teased, though he was hardly one to talk. Then his stomach rumbled loudly.

“We also took the liberty of preparing lunch for you back at Mr. Stark’s vacation home,” Ana added. “It’s rather simple because of the time constraints, I’m afraid, but we can certainly have a proper dinner later.”

Peggy did not hug people, but in that moment she was ready to hug and kiss both of the Jarvises, and from the expressions on Daniel and Jack’s faces she could tell they felt the same way. And despite the troubles of the last twenty four hours and the interrupted plans and the challenging case ahead of them—despite it all, here she was, surrounded by friends, Daniel at her side. She couldn’t stop smiling.

* * *

They made it back to the mainland without incident, and after they had secured Dottie in the local jail under heavy guard, paid a visit to a doctor who confirmed that no lasting damage had been done to Daniel’s eyes, and gorged themselves on Jarvis’s “simple” three-course lunch, Peggy finally showered and collapsed into bed—a gloriously comfortable, dry, heavenly bed—and was already asleep by the time Daniel joined her. He murmured an apology when she woke as he slid in under the covers.

“No need for that,” she yawned, rolling over to make room for him.

 He stroked her hair. “Some honeymoon, huh?”

She nodded sleepily. “We can escort Dottie back to Los Angeles tomorrow morning for questioning, if you’re ready to travel. I suppose we’ll have to see the redwoods another time.”

“Yeah, that’s what I told Jack and the Jarvises. They acted like I was nuts; you should’ve seen the look Ana gave me. They said they could handle it and we should just finish our honeymoon as planned.”

“Surely you don’t agree with them,” Peggy said, sitting up. “Of course we have to go back.”

“Well…actually, I thought they kind of had a point. We only get one honeymoon, you know? And we do have reservations over by Golden Gate Park for tomorrow night.”

She could think of a dozen reasons why it made sense to cut the trip short. At minimum, there was an interrogation to attend to, chemical analyses to perform, and of course there would be mountains of paperwork. “It would be a shame to cancel,” she found herself saying instead. “…And if I recall correctly, I believe Roxxon has a large storage facility around the Embarcadero. Perhaps we could take an…unofficial tour.”

Daniel kissed her and grinned. “That’s my girl.”


End file.
